Dear Parishioners,

The parish needs more altar servers. In the last few years we have been hit with two main contributors to the lack of servers. We have closed our school which has traditionally been a source of many of our servers. We have also been through a Pandemic which has chilled participation in the Church in general. We have been very blessed with a number of veteran servers who have faithfully filled the ranks and donated their time. I am very grateful to all of them for doing this. Yet, we have been running on a skeleton crew where even occasionally we have no server at Mass and when we do there is usually only one. To make matters worse, a number of these servers will be retiring in the next few years as they progress in high school.

So, if you have any children who are in the 4th grade or higher, please consider asking them to be servers. They have to attend two training practices and beyond just coming earlier (set-up) and staying later (clean-up) for Mass, it is not a heavy commitment especially since they ought to be coming to Mass anyway. Please reach out to Deacon John Klincewicz if you are interested. His contact info can be found elsewhere in the bulletin. We will have the new server trainings on the following Wednesdays: October 19th and October 26th at 4 pm in the Church. We can make a special practice for anyone who wants to serve but cannot make those times.

In closing, I would like to also list why we should all desire more servers at Mass. Often people can reduce their role to being merely functional. But they have a very important role in the liturgy and are required in the rubrics of the Mass.

• Altar Servers add solemnity to the Mass. A reverent server encourages people to pray and they show the importance of what is being done at the altar.

• The more servers we have, the more roles they can fulfill at Mass. We could have more servers carrying candles, using incense and leading people to bring up the gifts.

• Being an altar server is good formation for young people. It makes them accountable and gives them a job to do. Sometimes young people can feel like they have no part in the Church when they only see adults doing things. But this is a way to involve people in their faith and to show that they can play a very important roll. Not to mention that they will learn more about the Mass and pick up holy habits.

So, please encourage more young people to be servers. We need them!

God bless!

Fr. Carter